Order for BDO complaint

OUR LEGAL REPORTER

The high court on Thursday directed the inspector-in-charge (IC) of Rajarhat police station to accept a complaint accusing a block development officer (BDO) of beating up a couple to evict them from a vested property.

The police officer, Sukamal Das, had allegedly refused to accept the complaint by Govinda Dhali on the grounds that the BDO, Amalendu Somaddar, was his superior.

“The BDO might be the IC’s superior but which law prevented him from accepting the complaint? The IC is directed to accept the complaint,” Justice Dipankar Dutta ruled. “In many eviction cases, similar complaints are lodged by land-losers. The truth should come out. So the police should investigate the complaint.”

Dhali, who allegedly occupies a vested plot measuring around a bigha at Arbaria in North 24-Parganas, moved the petition seeking the high court’s intervention.

He sought an order directing the police to accept his complaint against Somaddar, the BDO of Rajarhat II block, and conduct an inquiry on the basis of that allegation.

“On January 14 this year, around 7am, the BDO came to evict us from the land along with some people, known as promoters in the area,” Dhali stated in his petition. The petitioner alleged that when he prayed for time, the BDO assaulted him and his wife.

“When I went to Rajarhat police station to lodge a complaint against the BDO and his men, the inspector-in-charge refused to accept it. Then I wrote to the superintendent of police, North 24-Parganas, informing him about the incident,” the petition stated.

Dhali claimed the IC had told him that since Somaddar was his superior, he had no authority to accept any complaint against him.

Appearing for the state, additional government pleader Tapan Banerjee opposed the petition and described it as “baseless”.

“The land the petitioner and his family have been occupying is vested.... The BDO had issued a notification asking the petitioner to leave a small portion of land for development work,” Banerjee told the single-judge bench.

“It is not true that BDO had gone there with some promoters. A responsible officer like him can never beat a person or assault his wife,” he said.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 31.

Painting expense

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has spent over Rs 1 crore on painting public properties in blue and white, mayoral council member Atin Ghosh said on Thursday in reply to a question from an opposition councillor at the civic session. The CMC had painted various public properties not belonging to it in the chief minister’s favourite colours.